Outside the huge front doors of a big church, some workmen were erecting a scaffold. A passerby stopped and asked the foreman what the men were doing. The foreman said: “These front doors are very heavy, and we have been asked to install new doors that are easier to operate.” Then, with a gleam in his eye, he added, “No church has a right to put up doors that the children cannot open.”

“Let the children come to me, and do not stop them,” Jesus said (Mk. 10:14). It was a very natural thing that Jewish mothers should wish their children to be blessed by a great and distinguished Rabbi. Especially they brought their children to such a person on the child’s first birthday. It was in that way that they brought the children to Jesus on this day.

Jesus was on this day on the way to the cross – and he knew it. That shadow can never have been far from his mind. It was at such a time as that that He had time for the children. Even with such tension in his mind, He had time to take them in his arms and he had the heart to smile into their faces and maybe to play with them awhile. That is precisely why the disciples sought to keep the children away. It was not that they were boorish and ungracious men. It was not that they wanted to protect Jesus. They did not know exactly what was going on, but they knew quite clearly that tragedy lay ahead, and they could see the tension under which Jesus labored. They did not want him to be bothered. They could not conceive that he could want the children around him at such a time as this. But even then Jesus said: “Let the children come to me.”

In today’s Scripture Jesus tells us that only the spirit of childlike, unconditional trust in God’s promise to fulfill us in his life of love can liberate us from the heavy burden of obligation that hangs like a dark cloud over our religious experience.

A small boy was being bullied by a bigger fellow. Undaunted, the little fellow drew a line in the dirt with his foot and then issued a challenge. “I dare you to cross that line,” he said. The bully immediately stepped across the line. “Okay,” said the small boy. “Now you’re on my side.”

We celebrate the awesome commission to talk to the children of this world about God, in word, and in deed both. “Let the children come to us!”

• Thought for the week: Try to do one thing at a time.
• Smile for the week: “How can you delay milk turning sour?” Johnny: “Keep it in the cow.”

God bless! Have a wonderful week!